


Of Epithets

by LadyOfTheOldWorld



Series: Children of Agni [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Fluff, pure and unadulterated fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-01
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-10-26 17:09:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10791012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyOfTheOldWorld/pseuds/LadyOfTheOldWorld
Summary: Because only she can get away with calling him Zuzu.- - - -Modern AU; ZukoxOC.





	Of Epithets

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place sometime between the chapters of "Twisted, Messed Up." Nothing is mine, and Yue belongs to my best friend.

Nicknames/Pet names, in all honesty, are just a part of human relationships. Well, a part of _close_ ones, at least. Usually. Mostly. In the better sense. But then, you have the nicknames that come from ridicule, animosity, and just plain, juvenile _meanness_. And then some, well, some others just end up being monikers applied to your by other people with _think_ they know you, but really don't know the first _thing_ about you. In his eighteen years of life – eighteen years of making choices dictated to him, choices he thought others wanted, and finally (after much trial and error and a few wrong turns) making his _own_ choices – one Zuko Agni had found himself graced with many, _many_ nicknames.

Some of them – "Banished Prince of Business Empire," "Scarred Rebel," and other such – were applied by those that didn't know him, mostly the media. Others, such as "Hothead," "Sparky," or even the extremely childish "Wannabe Prince," were from a mixed group of people who knew him and liked to tease him, and people who _thought_ they knew him and _also_ liked to tease him. And then there were the ones given him by his family. He was "Nephew," to his Uncle Iroh. He had been "My Boy," to his Mother, Ursa. His Father's silence was enough of an address in and of itself, if Ozai deigned to even acknowledge him at all. And his sister –

Well.

In the case of his younger sister, Azula, the name she had for him was worse than every other. She liked to call him the ever-infuriating nickname that had begun as simply her previous inability to say his name correctly. Over the years from the time she was four, however, it had grown into something simply _malicious_.

She called him, of all things, _Zuzu_.

He hated it with more passion than Azula claimed to hate their Mother (he didn't believe it, but now wasn't the time for _that_ discussion).

"…Zuzu?"

Oh.

"Hm? Yeah, Yue?"

Maybe…

"Stop spacing out, okay? We'll never get this English project finished if you don't."

_Just_ maybe…

"Right. Yeah. Sorry."

Maybe, _just maybe_ , he didn't _quite_ hate the nickname as much as he had thought.

Or, at least he only hated when his sister – or anyone but Yue – used it.


End file.
